Homemade Chocolate Fudge Pop Tarts

Homemade chocolate fudge pop tarts are super chocolatey, with a buttery chocolate cookie crust, chocolate fudge filling, and shiny chocolate icing, sprinkled with more chopped chocolate. These chocolate pop tarts basically taste like a fudge brownie, or a frosted chocolate sugar cookie, for a fun and indulgent treat for breakfast.

You might also love these homemade strawberry pop tarts, brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts, and cherry pop tarts.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Better Than Store Bought. I love homemade versions of popular store bought treats. You know exactly what goes into them, with no chemicals or weird ingredients, and they’re fun to make, too.

Triple Chocolate. There’s no such thing as too much chocolate, and I love the triple dose of chocolate in these pop tarts. With the chocolate crust, chocolate filling and chocolate icing, chocolate lovers will love this nostalgic treat.

Assemble at Night, Bake in the Morning. Although these are pretty easy to make, you will need a little time to make, chill and roll out the dough before assembling and baking your pop tarts. If you like, you can assemble them at night, then just bake them in the morning. You can even freeze the unbaked pop tarts to bake later.

High Altitude Tested. While today’s recipe will work at any altitude, I test all the recipes on my site at Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

Chocolate Cookie Crust

For the chocolate crust, I used my go to chocolate sugar cookie dough recipe. It’s a simple dough, made of all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, salt, butter, milk and vanilla extract. I also added an egg yolk, which adds tenderness and structure. The crust has a wonderful chocolate flavor that isn’t too sweet. I use a food processor to make the dough easily and quickly, but you can also make it with a pastry cutter.

Chocolate Filling

The filling is also really simple, sort of like a thick ganache, made of melted semi sweet chocolate chips, butter and cream. As the pop tarts bake, the filling melts into the crust a bit, so the two aren’t really discernible from each other. Each bite is rich, fudgy and so chocolatey.

Chocolate Icing

Iced pop tarts are the prettiest, so the chocolate icing is a must. It’s shiny, making for a pretty presentation, but also gives the sprinkles something to stick to. You’ll need powdered sugar, cocoa powder, meringue powder, vanilla and milk. The meringue powder is a necessary ingredient that helps the icing to set quickly and stay set, rather than getting sticky and soft. You can decorate your frosted chocolate pop tarts with sprinkles, mini chocolate chips or chopped chocolate.

Instructions

Make the chocolate cookie dough.

• In your food processor, pulse the flour, cocoa powder, powdered sugar and salt until combined.With the processor running, drop in the pieces of butter, one tablespoon at at time, pulsing a few times until the butter is evenly distributed, and the dough is moistened and crumbly.

• Add the vanilla, milk and egg yolk, then process until the dough starts to stick together into a dough ball. (Save the egg white for when you assemble the pop tarts.)

• Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and use your hands to finish bringing the dough together, kneading in any stray dry ingredients.  The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.
• Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Make the chocolate filling.

• In a small saucepan, warm the butter and cream over medium low heat, until the butter is melted, and the mixture is warm.
• Add the chocolate chips, and use a spatula to stir the mixture over low heat, just until the chocolate chips are melted and smooth.If for any reason the chocolate seizes up and gets stiff and dry, you can smooth it out by adding more cream (warmed, not cold), 1-2 teaspoons at a time, until the filling smooths out to a creamy, spreadable consistency.
• Remove from the heat, and set aside to cool while you roll out the dough.

Roll and cut the dough.

• Prepare 2 half-sheet baking pans by lining them with parchment paper (my baking sheet is a little larger than a half sheet, but not quite as big as a full sheet pan, so I only used 1 baking pan for 9 pop tarts).
• Working with half the dough at a time, roll out the dough on a lightly floured counter, sprinkling the dough with a little more flour to keep it from sticking. Roll out into a rectangle, measuring a little bigger than 9×15 inches. The dough will be about 1/8 inch thick.
• Using a ruler for guidance, cut the dough into 9 rectangles, each measuring 3×5 inches. I like to use a rolling pastry wheel cutter for this, but you could also use a bench scraper or a sharp knife.
• Handling the dough carefully (it’s delicate when rolled thin), place the cut dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. TIP: I find it easiest to transfer the cut rectangles of dough by sliding a spatula or a bench scraper under them to move them to the baking sheet. This way, there’s less chance of tearing the dough than if you use your hands to pick them up.
• Repeat with the other half of the dough, cutting 9 more rectangles. You should cut a total of 18 rectangles, for 9 assembled pop tarts. If you have enough scraps leftover, you can gather them up, and roll them out to make another pop tart.

Fill and assemble.

• Spread the cooled chocolate filling onto half of the rectangles of dough, using about 1 tablespoon filling per pop tart.
• Lightly brush the edges of the dough with the reserved egg white.
• On the other half of the dough, use a knife to cut an “x” or several slits in the dough. This will help to vent the steam from the filling, so the sides don’t burst open in the oven.
• Place the top pieces of dough on the bottoms, and press the edges to seal. Use a fork to press the edges together all around each pop tart.
• Place the baking sheet/s in the refrigerator to chill for 20 minutes while the oven is preheating.

Bake.

• Preheat the oven to 375 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
• Bake the pop tarts for about 25-28 minutes, until baked through and starting to puff. With chocolate dough, you can’t tell by the color if they’re baked or not, but there should be no appearance of raw or wet dough on the top or underneath of the pop tarts.
• Cool on the baking sheet for 15 minutes before icing.

Icing.

• In a bowl, stir together the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and meringue powder. Add the milk and vanilla, and stir until smooth. The icing will be thick, but should slowly run off a spoon.
• Immediately spread the icing onto the warm pop tarts with a small icing spatula or the back of a spoon. Since the icing will set very quickly, you have to add the sprinkles right away to each pop tart as you ice it. So ice a pop tart, then add the sprinkles/chocolate chips/chopped chocolate. Ice another pop tart, and add the sprinkles, and so on.

• Serve the pop tarts warm, or at room temperature.
• Let the pop tarts cool completely before storing in an airtight container, each layer separated by parchment paper or wax paper, for up to 3 days.

Recipe Variations

• Filling. Instead of the chocolate filling, try chocolate hazelnut spread (Nutella), creamy peanut butter or jam filling. The chocolate crust would be great with blackberry or raspberry jam filling.
• Icing. Instead of the chocolate icing, try vanilla icing. You could also flavor the vanilla icing with flavored extracts, like caramel or maple.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

Frequently Asked Questions

What cocoa powder did you use?

For the cookie dough and the icing, I used Rodelle Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder. In the filling, I used Kirkland (Costco) Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips.

How do I make the dough if I don’t have a food processor?

If you don’t have a food processor, you’ll need a large bowl and a pastry cutter.  In the bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar and salt.  Scatter with the cold butter pieces and use the pastry cutter to cut the butter in until very finely cut and evenly distributed.  Drizzle with the vanilla, milk and egg yolk, then use your hands to work the liquid into the dry ingredients until it forms into a soft dough.

Can I make the dough in advance and freeze it?

To make the dough in advance, wrap the disk of dough in plastic wrap, labeled, and refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze for 3-6 months.  Frozen dough should be thawed overnight in the refrigerator.  Then take the dough out of the fridge about 1 hour before you’re ready to roll out the dough.  It should still be cool to the touch when you roll it out, but pliable enough to roll without too much difficulty.

Can I freeze chocolate pop tarts?

You can freeze the fully assembled, unbaked pop tarts in an airtight container for up to 3-6 months.  When you’re ready to bake them, let the pop tarts thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then bake them cold from the fridge.  Ice the baked pop tarts and enjoy.

How long do homemade pop tarts stay fresh?

After the pop tarts are completely cooled and the icing set, store them in an airtight container at room temperature. They’ll stay fresh for about 3 days.

How do I warm up leftover pop tarts?

You can warm up leftover pop tarts for several minutes in a convection oven on the toaster setting. The chocolate on top will get a little soft and melty, though.

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